Seeing a lot of twitter whining about the Ten Commandments monument being moved from the Oklahoma capital grounds. A couple of comments
1) Complaints about how "secular liberals" or "atheists" or "Muslims" or whoever "have won." It's an interesting accusation, since the AP article clearly points out that the lawsuit against the monument was brought by a Baptist preacher! Not your typical secular liberal, for sure, and certainly not an atheist nor Muslim.
2) One of the problems with the monument that I can see is that it actually includes the text. That is a problem, because it begs the question, "Which Ten Commandments do you choose?" You can read the text in some images and it is clear that this is protestant version of the TC. It does not agree with the version provided in the Roman Catholic Cathechism, for example (which is what I learned growing up). There are a bunch of comments about how how "Separation of Church and State" is not in the constitution, but even in those cases (often in those cases in fact) they argue that the purpose of the 1st Amendment is to prevent against the creation of an official state religion or to give preference to one religion over another. In displaying the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments, there has been a deliberate choice to display that version over the Roman Catholic version, sending the message that the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments is the one preferred by the state. Sorry, Catholics (and probably Jews, too, but I'm not sufficiently familiar with their version), the State of Oklahoma has decided that your religious teaching is not equal to the Protestants. At least symbolize them with just the Roman numerals, without specifying whose version.
3) Putting the text in there creates another great contradiction. Among the commandments listed on the monuments is "Thou Shalt Not Kill." Ironic, since Oklahoma has the death penalty and has three people scheduled for execution this fall (including one tomorrow). Maybe that's why they needed to get rid of the monument? Now, don't you dare try to claim that the commandment REALLY says "Thou shalt not murder" because if that is what it REALLY says, why wasn't that shown on the monument? No, the Ten Commandments on the monument clearly says, "Thou shalt not kill." If that's not right, why would you want to keep the monument on display? If you have the wrong commandment....?
1) Complaints about how "secular liberals" or "atheists" or "Muslims" or whoever "have won." It's an interesting accusation, since the AP article clearly points out that the lawsuit against the monument was brought by a Baptist preacher! Not your typical secular liberal, for sure, and certainly not an atheist nor Muslim.
2) One of the problems with the monument that I can see is that it actually includes the text. That is a problem, because it begs the question, "Which Ten Commandments do you choose?" You can read the text in some images and it is clear that this is protestant version of the TC. It does not agree with the version provided in the Roman Catholic Cathechism, for example (which is what I learned growing up). There are a bunch of comments about how how "Separation of Church and State" is not in the constitution, but even in those cases (often in those cases in fact) they argue that the purpose of the 1st Amendment is to prevent against the creation of an official state religion or to give preference to one religion over another. In displaying the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments, there has been a deliberate choice to display that version over the Roman Catholic version, sending the message that the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments is the one preferred by the state. Sorry, Catholics (and probably Jews, too, but I'm not sufficiently familiar with their version), the State of Oklahoma has decided that your religious teaching is not equal to the Protestants. At least symbolize them with just the Roman numerals, without specifying whose version.
3) Putting the text in there creates another great contradiction. Among the commandments listed on the monuments is "Thou Shalt Not Kill." Ironic, since Oklahoma has the death penalty and has three people scheduled for execution this fall (including one tomorrow). Maybe that's why they needed to get rid of the monument? Now, don't you dare try to claim that the commandment REALLY says "Thou shalt not murder" because if that is what it REALLY says, why wasn't that shown on the monument? No, the Ten Commandments on the monument clearly says, "Thou shalt not kill." If that's not right, why would you want to keep the monument on display? If you have the wrong commandment....?
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1Md1VpM
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